Trump’s Secret Offshore Wind Payout Benefits Billionaire Donor

The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration's $1.2 billion deal with German energy company RWE to cancel offshore wind projects includes a $900 million payment from RWE to purchase a stake in a Louisiana LNG project from an Australian billionaire who donated $1 million to Trump's campaign. Sierra Club Senior Advisor Nancy Pyne called the deal "corruption, plain and simple," and the payout marks the fifth such settlement by the administration to undermine offshore wind.

Trump’s Secret Offshore Wind Payout Benefits Billionaire Donor Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription https://cleantechnica.substack.com/subscribe , on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cleantechnica , or on Stripe https://cleantechnica.fundjournalism.org/contribute/ . Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week https://cleantechnica.com/2026/07/14/10/ despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles. Washington, D.C. — Today, the Washington Post reported https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/08/27/how-wind-projects-got-replaced-by-900-million-payday-trump-donors-firm/ that one of Trump’s recent secret deals to cancel offshore wind projects and bolster fossil fuels will result in a pay day for one of Trump’s million-dollar donors to the tune of $900 million. In August, the Trump administration announced a deal with German energy company RWE, in which the company will receive $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars in exchange for the company cancelling its planned offshore wind projects and instead doubling down on expensive, toxic fossil fuels. Today’s reporting showed that out of the $1.2 billion payout, RWE is spending $900 million to purchase a stake in a massive liquefied methane gas often referred to as LNG project in Louisiana. The $900 million stake is being purchased from an Australian billionaire who donated a million dollars to Donald Trump’s campaign. The payout to RWE is the fifth https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2026/08/donald-trump-pays-5th-energy-company-attack-renewable-energy of Donald Trump’s attempts to sink the offshore wind industry by paying off energy companies. Sierra Club has supported lawsuits https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2026/07/east-coast-states-will-sue-trump-illegal-payoffs filed by states challenging the validity of these “settlements”. In response, Sierra Club Senior Advisor Nancy Pyne issued the following statement: “This is corruption, plain and simple. The Trump administration is making it clear once again that they have no plans to lower sky-high energy prices or address life-threatening extreme climate events. This administration’s priorities are to help out Trump’s golf buddies at Mar-a-Lago, and to line the pockets of the people who give his campaign millions of dollars. “These egregious attacks on clean, reliable energy like offshore wind will only drive up electricity costs for us all. Sierra Club will continue to fight back and work to deliver a more affordable and cleaner energy future.” Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries https://cleantechnica.substack.com/subscribe , sign up for our daily newsletter https://mailchi.mp/cleantechnica/daily-newsletter , and follow us on Google News https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqLQgKIidDQklTRndnTWFoTUtFV05zWldGdWRHVmphRzVwWTJFdVkyOXRLQUFQAQ Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here https://cleantechnica.com/contact/ . Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day https://mailchi.mp/cleantechnica/daily-newsletter . Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week https://mailchi.mp/cleantechnica/weekly-newsletter if daily is too frequent. CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here https://cleantechnica.com/cleantechnica-editorial-ethics/ . CleanTechnica's Comment Policy https://cleantechnica.com/cleantechnica-comment-policy/